Capital and Interest

Produced throughout the first fifteen years of Hayek’s career, the writings collected in Capital and Interest see Hayek elaborate on and extend his landmark lectures that were published as Prices and Production and work toward the technically sophisticated line of thought seen in his later Pure Theory of Capital.

Illuminating the development of Hayek’s detailed contributions to capital and interest theory, the collection also sheds light on how Hayek’s work related to other influential economists of the time. Highlights include the 1936 article “The Mythology of Capital”—presented here alongside Frank Knight’s criticisms of the Austrian theory of capital that prompted it—and “The Maintenance of Capital,” with subsequent comments by the English economist A. C. Pigou.

These and other familiar works are accompanied by lesser-known articles and lectures, including a lecture on technological progress and excess capacity. An introduction by the book’s editor, leading Hayek scholar Lawrence H. White, places Hayek’s contributions in careful historical context, with ample footnotes and citations for further reading.

F. A. Hayek (1899–1992), recipient of the Medal of Freedom in 1991 and co-winner of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1974, was a pioneer in monetary theory and one of the principal proponents of classical liberal thought in the twentieth century. He taught at the London School of Economics, the University of Chicago, and the University of Freiburg.

Lawrence H. White is Professor of Economics at George Mason University.